r-= 

PRIVATE    REVENGE: 
A  SEEMON 

pracbcb  in  (Lrinifg  (tbnrcb,  <$l;isbinqton,  p.  if.,  §unban,  })\;\y  S, 

1809, 

BY 

Rev.   C.   M.   BUTLER,  D.  D., 

HECTOR. 

PUBLISHED    BY    REQUEST    OF    THE  WARDENS  AND   VESTRY. 


■ 


WASHINGTON: 

HENRY   POLKINIIORN,    PRINTER 

1859  . 


4-  ^ 


RY 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SANTA  kRA 


PRIVATE    REVE 


A  SERMON 


pratbcb  in  (jTrhuig  £burt!i,fe!nngion,  §.  €.,  Skmbag,  pin  8,  1859, 


BY 


Rev.    C.   M.   BUTLER,  D.  D., 
\\ 


PUBLISHED   BY    REQUEST   OF    THE  WARDENS  AND  VESTRY. 


WASHINGTON  : 
HENRY   POLKINHORN,   PRINTER. 


1859 


1 


fl/ 


£1  &* 


CORRESPONDENCE. 


Vestry  Room,  Trinity  Church, 

Washington,  May  ■>,  1S-j9. 
Rev.  and  Dear  Sir: 

The  sermon  on  "Private  Revenge,"  delivered  by  you  last  evening  in 
Trinity  Church,  contains  new  and  striking  views  of  its  evils,  and  of  the  ab- 
solute necessity  for  the  welfare  of  society  that  punishment  for  wrong  should 
rest  with  God,  and  the  ministers  of  the  law.  Believing  that  the  circulation 
of  this  sermon  in  the  community,  would  tend  to  correct  public  sentiment  in 
a  most  important  particular,  we  respectfully  request  a  copy  for  publica- 
tion. 

J.  M.  BRODIIEAD,  JOSEPH  F.  LEWIS. 

E.  L.  CHILDS,  CHARLES  B.  MAURY. 

FLTZHUGH  COYLE,  L.  D.  GALE, 

JOS.  H.  BRADLEY,  D.  W.  MIDDLETON, 

W.  B.  TODD. 
Rev.  C.  M.  Butler,  D.  D., 

Sector  Trinity  Church,  Washington,  D.  C. 


WasbtWGtoh,  May  16,  1859. 

Dear  Brethren : 

I  am  gratified  to  find  that  the  sermon  on  "Private  Revenge,"  recently 
delivered,  meets  with  your  approbation;  and  that  in  your  kind  judgment 
its  publication  would  "tend  to  correct  public  sentiment  in  a  most  import- 
ant paitirular."  The  same  solemn  sense  of  duty  which  led  to  its  prepara- 
tion and  delivery,  constrains  me  also  to  consent  to  its  publication. 
Truly,  your  friend  and  pastor. 

C.  Iff.  BUTLER. 
To  J.  M.  Broimiead,  E.  L.  Childs,  &c. 


/ 


PRIVATE  REVENGE. 


Proud,  and  haughty  ecomer  is  his  name  *rh<>  dealeth  in  proud  wrath, 

PbOVKBBS,  .\.\i  :  24. 


What  a  magnificent  utterance  is  this !  How  the  rich  Saxon 
words  ring  out  a  clear,  wise,  and  momentous  meaning  !  Every 
word  weighs  like  purified  gold,  and  sparkles  like  a  clean  cut 
diamond !  "  Proud  and  haughty  scorner  is  his  name  who 
dealeth  in  proud  wrath!" 

"Proud  wrath!"  It  would  be  difficult  to  put  two  words  to- 
gether which  would  more  truly  express  the  anger  of  hearts  self- 
willed,  pampered  by  self-indulgence,  and  made  arrogant  by 
prosperity  and  power.  Pharaoh's  wrath  was  proud  when  he 
pursued  Israel  with  his  chariots  and  horses.  Saul's  was  proud 
wrath  when  he  aimed  his  javelin  at  David.  So  was  Naaman's 
when  he  turned  away  in  a  rage  from  Elisha's  humbling  direc- 
tion to  go  wash  in  Jordan.  So  was  Ahab's  when  Naboth 
refused  to  give  to  him  his  vineyard. 

What  and  whence  is  this  proud  wrath  ? 

It  is  not  moral  indignation  because  of  wrong  committed 
against  self  or  others.  It  does  indeed  strive  to  make  itself 
seem  to  be  this :  for  this  feeling  of  moral  reprobation  for 
wrong  doing,  is  not  unrighteous.  It  is  no  part  of  religion  to 
extinguish  our  sense  of  natural  justice.  This  feeling  is  not  only 
compatible  with  holiness,  but  is  one  of  its  highest  expressions. 
God  is  just,  and  hates  injustice.  If  we  are  created  in  his  image, 
we  will  share  his  hatred.  When  Christ,  arraigned  before  Pilate, 
was  wantonly  and  cruelly  smitten   by  one  of  the  officers,  he 


6  PRIVxlTE    REVENGE. 

answered,  with  indignant  dignity :  "  If  I  have  spoken  evil,  beaf 
witness  of  the  evil ;  but  if  well,  why  smitest  thou  me?"  Holy 
Paul,  about  to  speak  before  the  council,  when  Ananias  comman- 
ded that  he  should  .be  smitten  on  his  mouth,  retorted :  "  God 
shall  smite  thee,  thou  whited  wall !  for  sittest  thou  to  judge  me 
after  the  law,  and  commandest  me  to  be  smitten  contrary  to 
the  law?"  This  holy  indignation,  proud  wrath  affects  to  be.  It 
deceives  itself.  It  says,  with  Jonah,  "I  do  well  to  be  angry." 
It  is  a  most  striking  tribute  to  justice  and  holiness,  that  proud 
and  evil  anger  must  cajole  itself  into  the  conviction  that  it 
is  right,  before  it  dare  give  itself  free  way. 

It  is  from  wounded  self-love  that  proud  wrath  proceeds.  It 
is  the  rage  of  a  selfish  and  evil  heart.  It  may  be  excited 
by  that  which  is  evil,  or  by  that  which  is  right  and  righteous. 
Saul's  proud  and  envious  rage  against  David  was  excited  by 
the  very  beauty  and  excellence  of  his  character  and  conduct. 
Ahab  and  Jezebel  had  no  just  cause  of  anger  against  Naboth. 
Even  when  roused  by  injustice,  it  is  itself  unjust,  because  it 
seeks  selfish  gratification  and  revenge.  It  is  rage,  because, 
whether  justly  or  unjustly,  its  selfishness  is  thwarted,  or  its  pride 
wounded.  This  acrid  humor  of  proud  wrath  issues  from  the 
wound,  not  because  it  is  always  inflicted  by  a  poisoned  arrow ; 
but  because  the  body  itself  is  corrupt  and  tainted.  Its  essen- 
tial character  is  this — that  it  is  rage,  because  of  wounded  self- 
love,  mortified  pride,  disappointed  ambition. 

Such  is  proud  wrath. 

But  why  is  he  who  dealeth  in  it  a  proud  and  haughty 
scorner  ? 

The  definition  of  a  scorner  is  that  he  is  one  who  mocks  at 
goodness,  makes  light  of  the  distinctions  of  good  and  evil,  and 
ridicules  a  conscientious  fear  of  God  and  devotion  to  his  service. 
It  is  that  degree  of  evil  which  they  reach  who  graduate  in  the 
highest  class  of  iniquity.  The  Psalmist  indicates  the  degrees 
of  sin  preparatory  to  this;  "Blessed  is  the  man  that  walketh 
not  in  the  counsel  of  the  wicked,  nor  standeth  in  the  way  of 
sinners,  nor  sitteth  in  the  seat  of  the  scornful."     First,  the 


PRIVATE     REVENGE.  7 

sinner  adopts  evil  principles.  He  walketh  in  the  counsel  of  the 
wicked :  Then  he  associates  with  and  joins  in  the  deeds  of  sin- 
ners. He  standeth  in  the  way  of  sinners :  Then  he  sits  in  the 
seat  of  the  scornful.  He  scoffs  at  goodness.  He  makes  a 
mock  at  sin. 

Now  they  who  deal — 4.  c,  practically  indulge — in  proud, 
wrath,  are  not  common  scorners,  but  proud  and  haughty  scorn- 
ers.  There  are  some  cowardly  and  sneaking  scorners.  They 
sneer  at  goodness.  They  extenuate  guilt.  They  apologize 
for  revenge.  They  vindicate  it  in  theory,  and  would  practice 
it,  but  for  the  fear  of  temporal  consequences.  They  make  "  I 
dare  not"  wait  upon  "I  would."  But  they  Avho  deal  in  proud 
wrath  are  proud  and  haughty  scorners,  because  they  put  in 
practice  their  evil  principle.  And  this  is  the  difference  between 
the  vulture  in  the  egg  and  the  fledged,  full-grown  vulture  at 
his  prey.  It  is  the  difference  between  Pharaoh  cowering  in 
the  midst  of  the  threatenings  and  judgments  of  God,  when  they 
were  present  and  impending,  and  the  same  Pharaoh  proudly 
glittering  in  his  war  chariot,  breathing  revenge  against  the 
Israelites,  and  leading  on  his  army  in  hot  haste  for  their  capture 
or  extermination. 

Now  he  who  "dealeth  in  proud  wrath"  practically,  and  there- 
fore most  flagrantly  and  emphatically,  scorns  and  sets  at 
naught  God's  laws  and  threatenings.  Even  if  the  victim  of  his 
rage  deserves  what  he  gets,  yet,  as  inflicted  by  him,  it  is  a  high- 
handed transgression.  He  seeks  not  justice  but  revenge.  He 
indulges  selfishness  and  commits  sin.  He  sets  at  naught 
God's  threatenings  against  sin.  Moreover,  he  assumes  to  take 
from  God  his  prerogative  of  avenging  wrong.  "  Vengeance  is 
mine  ;  I  will  repay,  saith  the  Lord."  It  is  a  presumptuous  in- 
terference with  God's  administration.     It  i3  an  an  attempt  to 

"  Snatch  from  His  hand  the  balance  and  the  rod, 
Rejudge  His  justice,  be  the  god  of  God." 

Notwithstanding  such  is  the  true  character  of  proud  wrath, 
yet  the  world  is  prone  to  admire  it  in  some  of  its  forms  and 


8  PRIVATE    REVENGE. 

manifestations.  When  it  commits  wrong,  it  is  indeed  less 
likely  to  be  admired  than  when  it  resents  injustice.  But  even 
in  the  former  case,  if  it  be  connected  with  splendid  gifts  of 
intellect,  with  dazzling  power,  and  with  success  that  seems  like 
fate,  and  if  it  use  great  swelling  words  of  glory  and  of  honor, 
it  drags  down  the  admiration  of  the  world  in  base  homage  at 
its  footstool.  If  it  be  the  proud  wrath  of  an  Alexander,  sub- 
jugating the  world  ;  or  of  a  Napoleon,  trampling  the  vineyards 
of  Italy  ;  the  sense  of  wrong  is  lost  in  admiration  of  the  power 
and  genius  displayed  in  its  commission.  And  when  this  proud 
wrath  is  employed  in  resisting  wrong,  by  nations  or  by  indi- 
viduals, it  fascinates  the  human  heart  to  the  same  stern  admi- 
ration with  which  it  gazes  upon  the  flash  of  the  lightning,  and 
the  terrible  beauty  of  the  storm,  regardless  of  the  wrecks  and 
ruins  that  they  leave  behind.  It  is  not  alone  with  the  "  chil- 
dren of  the  sun"  that  "  revenge  is  virtue."  It  was  ever  regarded 
as  such  by  the  Pagan  world.  It  was  because  it  was  forbidden 
by  Christianity  that  it  was  denounced  by  them  as  a  cowardly 
and  contemptible  religion — unfit  for  men.  But  admire  it  as 
men  will,  it  is  but  the  first-born  child  of  evil  pride.  It  is  the 
progeny  of  the  serpent.  "  It  is  the  subtilest  serpent  with  the 
haughtiest  crest."  There  is  a  sort  of  devilish  beauty  about 
some  serpents  in  their  gliding  grace,  their  vivid  changing  col- 
ors, and  their  haughty  flexile  heads.  Such,  if  there  be  any, 
is  the  beauty  of  revenge.  It  is  like  that  of  him  who  is  an 
"  archangel  ruined."  It  is  the  perversion  of  a  glorious  attri- 
bute.    It  is  the  fallen  angel  of  justice. 

Yet  let  us  not  be  so  unfair  to  this  proud  wrath  as  to  forget 
that  it  is  justice  of  which  it  is  the  perversion  and  contortion. 
Revenge  is,  says  Lord  Bacon,  a  kind  of  wild  justice.  In  the 
case  of  private  and  personal  revenge,  the  moral  reprobation  of 
it  cannot  fasten  upon  the  just  doom  which  it  sometimes  inflicts 
upon  its  victims.  It  must  lay  hold  upon  the  motives  and  feel- 
ings and  conduct  of  him  by  whom  it  is  inflicted.  If  the  mind 
be  directed  chiefly  and  intently  upon  the  righteous  retribution 
which   revenge   frequently  achieves,  in   forgetfulness  of    the 


PRIVATE     REVENGE.  9 

motives  of  the  deed,  and  of  its  inevitable  defeat  of  the  true  ends 
of  justice,  a  true  moral  sentiment  as  ill  be  cheated  into  approval. 
But  an  act  is  right  or  wrong,  just  or  unjust,  according  to  the 
motive  and  spirit  in  which  it  is  conceived  and  executed.  If  it 
come  from  selfishness,  hate,  revenge,  cruelty,  or  wanton  care- 
lessness of  inflicting  pain  and  ill,  it  is  evil,  be  its  consequences 
what  they  may.  It  is  the  selfishness,  the  arrogance,  the  im- 
patience with  God's  slow,  calm,  and  majestic  justice,  the  con- 
tempt for  his  threatenings  and  his  mode  of  procedure,  which 
makes  him  who  dealeth  in  proud  wrath  and  in  private  personal 
revenge,  a  proud  and  haughty  scorner. 

And  let  it  ever  be  remembered  that  proud  wrath,  even  when 
inflicting  a  deserved  doom,  never  can  achieve  the  true  ends  of 
justice.  If  this  were  deeply  felt,  many  persons  who  now  care- 
lessly approve  of  revengeful  acts,  because  they  inflict  deserved 
retribution  on  the  offender,  would  be  led  to  see  that  they  are  as 
evil  in  their  results  as  in  thejr  motives.  We  all  have  a  tend- 
ency, I  think,  to  approve  of  "  proud  wrath,"  when  it  wreaks 
what  seems  just  retribution  ;  but  when  we  see  that  it  never  can 
accomplish  the  true  ends  of  justice,  we  shall  be  cured  of  that 
delusion. 

Let  us  look  at  its  effects  on  the  offender ;  on  the  community  ; 
on  the  admistration  of  justice;  and  on  the  avenger. 

The  object  of  punishment,  so  far  as  it  refers  to  the  offender,  is 
not  merely  that  he  shall  suffer  so  much  pain,  so  much  penalty 
as  the  just  repayment  of  his  wrong-doing.  Such  a  commercial 
view  of  a  balance  of  accounts — of  the  settlement  of  debt  incur- 
red by  wrong  done,  by  an  equivalent  of  penalty  inflicted — is 
false  and  low.  Justice,  in  dealing  with  the  criminal,  is  to  do 
the  work  of  love.  Justice  is  the  minister  of  mercy.  Its  object 
when  it  punishes  is  not  primarily  to  inflict  pain,  but  to  make 
the  guilty  one  see  and  feel  his  wrong-doing ;  and  to  make  him 
see  and  feel  it,  and  repent  of  it,  and  amend  it,  and  make  repara- 
tion for  it,  through  the  sufferance  of  shame  and  pain.  It  is,  in 
short,  to  make  him  feel  how  wrong,  how  evil,  how  disastrous,  it 
is  to  violate  law.      Now,  that  he  may  see  this,  that   which 


10  PRIVATE     REVENGE. 

punishes  him  must  be  seen  by  him  to  be  holy,  just,  void  of  per- 
sonal passion,  and  right  and  righteous  in  character  and  conduct. 
This  effect  cannot  be  accomplished  if  he  suffer  never  so  justly 
from  proud  wrath.  It  will  not  have  on  him  the  effect  of  justice. 
Coming,  as  he  knows  that  his  punishment  does,  from  wounded 
self-love,  from  pride,  passion,  and  revenge,  it  will  seem  to  him 
to  be,  what  indeed  it  is,  as  done  by  his  foe,  evil,  wrong,  and 
injustice.  It  will  not  bring  him  to  a  right  mind.  It  will  but 
inflame  and  madden  him  the  more.  Looking  back  upon  the 
deed  that  has  provoked  the  revenge,  it  will  seem  to  his  per- 
verted mind,  in  the  tumult  of  his  anger,  to  be  its  vindication. 
Looking  at  the  revenger,  it  will  seem  to  make  future  vengeance 
upon  him  a  virtue  and  a  duty.  Thus  proud  wrath  can  never 
achieve  the  true  ends  of  justice — a  conviction  and  confession  of 
guilt,  a  reparation  of  wrong,  and  a  purpose  of  amendment. 
Punishment  does  not  then  stand  before  his  soul  in  the  venerable 
form  of  justice,  sad  even  in  its  sternness,  and  pitiful  even  in  its 
infliction  of  penalty,  and  which  appeals  to  his  moral  nature, 
and  gains  his  conscience  :  but  it  is  the  hateful,  scowling,  and 
furious  demon  of  revenge,  which  rouses  the  kindred  devil  in 
his  own  heart,  and  makes  him  hurl  back  "  firebrands,  arrows, 
and  death."  He  who  suffers  the  just  penalty  of  his  evil  deeds, 
will  be  likely  to  profit  by  the  suffering,  only  when  he  sees  that 
the  justice  which  inflicts  it  is  passionless  and  impersonal.  It 
must  come  from  law,  "whose  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,"  and 
not  from  revenge,  whose  throne  is  the  heart  of  the  Devil.  It 
must  be  administered  by  the  public  ruler,  who  is  the  minister 
of  God  to  execute  wrath ;  and  not  by  the  private  sufferer,  who 
is  but  the  minister  of  his  own  personal  hatred.  It  must  be 
seen  to  be  the  viceroyalty  of  Heaven.  Hence  the  dignity  of 
law,  of  courts  of  justice,  and  of  rulers.  While  they  are  a 
terror  to  evil  works,  it  is  to  the  end  that  offenders  may  see  how 
awful  justice  is — that  God  is  behind  it  and  in  it — that  it  is  God 
himself  in  the  manifestation  of  his  holiness — and  that  they  may 
thus  be  led,  by  the  stern  love  which  goes  forth  in  the  form  of 
justice,  to  resort  to  that  pitying  love,  which,  in  the  form  of 


PRIVATE    REVENGE.  11 

mercy,  saves  the  guilty — whom  first  it  punishes  in  order  that 
it  may  save. 

But  even  if  this  proud  revenge  work  no  harm  to  its  victim — 
if  it  make  him  no  more  evil  than  he  was  before— if  it  send 
him  beyond  the  reach  of  human  good  or  ill — if  his  death  be  to 
him  a  merciful  visitation — yet  its  effect  upon  the  community  is 
wholly  evil.     It  corrupts  the  moral  sentiment  of  society.     It 
teaches  men  to  feel  that  mere  justice  at  the  hands  of  God's 
commissioned  ministers,  is  not  enough  to  satisfy  their  proud 
demands.     Much  more  does  it  teach  them  to  be  unwilling,  if 
human  laws,  in  themselves,  or  from  their  imperfect  adminis- 
tration, refuse  them  justice,  to  leave  their  case  in  the  hands  of 
God.     It  creates  a  false  sentiment  that  honor  demands  that  a 
man  should  perpetrate  a  crime,  if  no  more  than  justice  is  meted 
out  to  him,  or  still  more  peremptorily  if  justice  be  evaded  or 
delayed.     It  is  easy  to  see  how  demoralizing  and  dreadful  the 
prevalence  of  such  sentiments  in  society  must  prove.     They 
bring  the  sense  of  shame — which  should  act  only  on  men  for 
evil-doing — to  act  upon  them  for  well-doing,  or  for  not  doing 
evil.     Hence  communities  grow  dissatisfied  with  the  infliction 
of  mere  justice — so  much  more  awful  than  revenge — upon  offen- 
ders, especially  when  they  have  been  high-handed,  cruel,  and 
atrocious  criminals.     Hence  they  strive  to  put  the  sharp  poison 
of  their  personal  and  private  revenge  even  on  the  point  of  the 
venerable  sword  of  magistracy  and  judgment.     Hence  mobs 
howl  under  prison  windows  and  execute  Lynch  law.     Hence  in 
the  circles  of  the  moral  and  religious,  will  be  heard  approval  of 
those  who  would  not  wait   for  the  slowly  rising,  or  who  have 
struck  down  the  uplifted,  sword  of  magistracy,  and  who  have 
plied  the  dagger  or  fired  the  revolver  of  the  assassin.     Thus  is 
the  moral  sentiment  of  the  community  horribly  corrupted.     It 
learns  to  approve  what  it  should  abhor — private  revenge,  and 
to  despise  what  it  should  venerate — public  justice.     Such  are 
its  evil  effects  upon  the  Qffender,  and  the  community. 

Does  it  secure  justice,  or  a  satisfactory  substitute  for  justice, 
to  him  who  has  suffered  wrong  ? 


12  PRIVATE    REVENGE. 

We  have  already  intimated  that  the  design  of  the  law  lis 
reference  to  him  who  has  suffered  wrong,  must  be  a  restoration 
of  his  rights,  or  a  just  satisfaction  and  compensation  for  his 
wrongs.  In  case  of  injury  to  property,  an  equivalent  value? 
or  restoration,  will  secure  the  ends  of  justice.  For  injuries  to 
his  good  name,  verdicts  which  constitute  his  vindication,  and 
an  adequate  punishment  of  the  offender,  are  all  that  justice  can 
accomplish.  For  wounds  to  his  feelings,  for  the  ruin  of  his 
happiness,  for  poison  dropped  into  his  heart,  which  will  rankle 
there  while  life  endures,  human  justice  can  restore  or  give 
nothing  that  will  seem  or  be  to  him  an  equivalent  and  a  satis- 
faction. He  must  look  to  a  higher  tribunal  for  this  perfect 
compensation.  Human  justice,  always  insufficient  fully  to  com- 
pensate the  injured,  is  peculiarly  powerless  to  satisfy  wrongs 
which  bruise  the  heart.  Its  nearest  approach  to  such  satisfac- 
tion, is  to  punish  the  offender  by  penalties  proportionate  to  the 
wrong,  and  by  such  compensation,  if  any  such  there  be,  to  the 
injured  as  will  constitute  an  offset  to  the  wrong  inflicted  upon 
the  heart.  This  liability  to  suffer  injustice  for  which  there  is 
no  possible  human  compensation,  is  one  of  the  conditions  of  our 
disordered  state  —  one  of  the  trials  of  our  earthly  probation. 
Human  law  cannot  remove  it.  Now  suppose  that  one  has  suf- 
fered in  this  way,  under  wrongs  the  most  cruel  which  can  be 
inflicted  upon  man ;  smarting  under  the  anguish  of  his  heart- 
wounds  ;  dissatisfied  because  human  law  has  not  assigned  all 
the  penalty  which  it  might  and  ought  to  have  done,  insufficient 
though  even  that  would  be,  for  the  enormous  injury  which  he 
has  sustained ;  or  dissatisfied  because  human  law  could  not  by 
any  of  its  penalties  satisfy  his  wounded  heart — suppose  that  he 
determines  to  anticipate  its  tardy  action,  and  to  inflict  justice 
on  the  offender,  and  secure  justice  for  himself,  by  his  own  aven- 
ging hand.  Can  he  thus  accomplish  the  true  ends  of  justice  ? 
We  have  seen  that  in  its  effects  upon  the  offender,  such  a  course 
defeats  those  ends.  Does  it  secure  justice  to  the  wronged? 
Can  he  thus  snatch  a  satisfaction  which  unjust  law  refused  to 
give?     Or  a  larger  satisfaction  than  that  which  was  all  tha*- 


PRIVATE     REVENGE.  13 

just  law  could  bestow ?  If  so,  in  what  does  it  consist?  Not 
in  the  verdict  of  a  jury,  or  the  decision  of  a  court,  which,  free 
from  all  personal  feeling,  speaks  in  awful  and  unimpassioned 
tones  its  moral  reprobation  of  the  wrong,  and  comes  to  the 
wounded  one  as  the  very  oracle  of  the  conscience  and  the 
sense  of  justice  of  universal  man,  and  thus  furnishes  a  sttbli- 
mer  consolation  than  even  precious  human  sympathy  or  worth- 
less gold  could  bring.  Not  in  this  high  alleviation  is  his  satis- 
faction found — for  this  he  has  rejected.  Then  it  must  be  that 
his  satisfaction  consists  in  the  indulgence  of  revengeful  feeling 
and  in  the  commission  of  a  revengeful  deed. 

Ah!  what  a  fatal  mistake  is  this  !  What  a  jugglery  of  the 
Devil  this,  that  has  made  synonymes  of  the  words  "revenge" 
and  "satisfaction!"  My  friend,  if  your  enemy  inflicts  upon 
ycu  a  wrong,  and  you  seek  only  justice  in  return,  he  can  give 
you  but  one  wound;  but  if  he  stings  you  into  revenge,  he 
pierces    you  with  a  thousand;  and  all  of  them  are  poisoned. 

Oh,  it  is  a  most  fatal  delusion  that  revenge  is  a  satisfaction  to 

the  feelings  of  the  wronged ! 

Does  the  injured  man  suffer  from  a  sense  of  wrong  ?  That 
cannot  be  removed  by  vengeance.  If  it  were  a  real  wrong,  the 
sense  of  it,  as  such,  will  remain  after  it  is  wronged.  ^Nay,  to  <2/v€/w%6/?L- 
palliate  the  revenge  one  will  strive  to  keep  up  a  vivid  feeling 
of  the  wrong.  Does  he  suffer  from  a  dread  of  shame,  if  he 
should  leave  the  wrong  unavenged  ?  Ah  !  that  sense  of  shame 
from  the  sneers  of  the  world  is  but  a  pin-prick  to  the  fiery 
shafts  of  agony  with  which  the  shame  of  his  own  conscience 
shall  pierce  him  through!  But  at  least  will  not  the  joy  of  exe- 
cuted revenge,  the  grim  complacency,  if  not  the  smiling  peace  of 
a  soul  avenged,  constitute  a  counterbalance  to  these  woes,  and 
be  a  true  and  sufficient  satisfaction?  Oh,  no!  There  is  no 
satisfaction,  cither  good  or  evil,  no  joy,  fiendish  or  human,  in 
revenge,  after  the  first  delirium  of  that  wine  of  hell  is  exhaus- 
ted. It  may  be  sweet  to  the  taste;  but  it  is  fire  in  the  bones, 
and  in  the  veins,  and  in  the  vitals.  The  flavor  passes ;  but 
the  fire   burns  forever.     The  revenge  abates  nothing    of   the 


14  PRIVATE    REVENGE. 

wrong.  It  does-remove  the  better  feeling  of  the  wrong.  It 
brings  no  compensation  of  self-approval.  Above  all,  it  adds  to 
his  already  troubled  heart  the  awful  agonies  of  remorse.  An 
enemy  inflicts  upon  him  a  curable  wound  ;  and  he  pours  into 
it  the  fiery  poison  of  indulged  revenge,  which  renders  it  in- 
curable. Ah  !  the  pungent  and  the  blood-red  cup  which  he 
drinks,  thinking  it  to  be  fierce  ecstacy,  he  finds  to  be  fiercer 
horror  !  Revenge,  satisfaction  ?  Ask  him  who  starts  from 
troubled  dreams,  in  which  the  murdered  man,  on  whom  he 
wreaked  sweet  vengeance,  throttles  him,  if  that  is  satisfac- 
tion !  Ask  him,  when  the  vivid  vision  of  his  victim,  pale  and 
bleeding,  comes  and  stands  between  him  and  the  brightest  scenes 
which  he  can  summon-before  him,  if  that  be  satisfaction  !  Ask 
him  if  the  pointed  finger  of  the  worjd,  and  the  hum  which  greets 
him,  in  which  the  words  "honor"  and  "murder"  are  heard  in 
rival  eagerness,  constitute  satisfaction  !  Oh,  the  terror  of  the 
remorse  and  shame  which  proud  wrath  indulged  bring  into  an 
immortal  spirit !  If  it  be  only  remorse,  and  pass  not  into  pen- 
itence, then  there  is  no  creature  out  of  hell  more  miserable. 

"  The  mind  that  broods  o'er  guilty  woes 

Is  like  the  scorpion  girt  with  fire, 
In  circle  narrowing  as  it  glows, 

The  flames  around  their  captive  close. 
So  writhes  the  mind  remorse  has  riven ; 

Unfit  for  earth,  undoom'd  for  heaven ; 
Darkness  above,  despair  beneath, 

Around  it  flame,  within  it  death." 

Or  even  if  the  remorse  pass  into  penitence  through  Almighty 
grace,  it  is  penitence  in  the  anguish  of  its  contrition,  rather 
than  in  the  peace  of  its  pardon.  Ah !  we  can  see  the  offender 
whom  we  have  pardoned,  with  a  peaceful  spirit,  and  murmur 
praise  to  God  for  his  restraining  grace ;  but  the  offender  whom 
we  hate,  or  on  whom  we  have  wreaked  revenge,  wTakens  a  hot 
and  angry  anguish  in  our  heart.  A  living  enemy  we  can  bury 
from  our  thought,  in  our  forgiveness,  our  forgetfulness,  or  our 
contempt ;  but  a  dead  enemy,  murdered,  is  never  buried.     Put 


PRIVATE     REVENGE.  15 

an  enemy  out  of  the  way — destroy  him  by  the  dagger  or  the 
revolver?  Nay,  you  do  by  this  means  substitute  an  occasional 
Bight  of  him  outside  of  your  soul,  by  the  perpetual  vision  of  him 
in  your  soul,  triumphing  over  your  poor  revenge  by  the  mil- 
lion-fold vengeance  with  which,  through  remorse,  he  forever 
stabs  your  heart.  Never — oh  !  never — has  the  Evil  One  more 
cruelly  deceived  the  hearts  of  men  than  when  he  has  persuaded 
them  that  vengeance  was  satixfaetion. 

We  see,  then,  that  revenge  never  can  achieve  any  of  the  true 
ends  of  justice.  Its  victim,  instead  of  being  made  to  feel  that  he 
suffers  from  a  holy  power,  high  above  him,  which  may  rouse  him 
to  shame,  and  through  it  lead  him  to  repentance^  knows  that 
he  suffers  from  a  low  power  on  his  own  level,  and  is  thus  fired 
with  reciprocal  anger  and  revenge.  The  community  is  perver- 
ted in  its  moral  sentiment,  and  taught  to  despise  the  law  on 
which  alone  its  own  security  can  rest.  Justice  is  administered 
to  neither  p%rty;  for  in  its  place  the  offender  suffers  the  lower 
penalty  of  private  vengeance  ;  and  the  infatuated  wronged  one 
adds  to  the  injuries  inflicted  by  an  enemy,  the  unspeakable 
injuries  which  he  inflicts  upon  himself.  Proud  wrath  never  can 
do  the  work  of  justice.  Lucifer  cannot  wield  Gabriel's  sword. 
Private  revenge  defeats  the  end  of  justice  in  each  particular 
case  ;  and,  if  it  should  universally  prevail,  it  would  drive  jus- 
tice from  the  world.  It  not  only  in  every  case  strikes  down 
and  hacks  her  two-edged,  sword  ;  but  by  wounding  her,  mars 
her  majestic  beauty,  and  drains  the  life-blood  of  her  awful 
power. 

If  these  things  are  so,  it  becomes  Christian  citizens  to  talk, 
and  act,  and  live,  and  administer  justice,  as  if  they  were.  If 
Christ's  doctrines  of  the  duty  of  personal  forgiveness,  and  the 
sin  of  personal  revenge,  be  practical  and  moral  rules,  and  not 
unattainable  and  romantic  moral  ideals,  let  Christians  at  least 
do  them  the  homage  of  admitting  their  obligationf,  however 
they  may  distrust  their  ability  to  realize  them  in  their  practice. 
My  Brethren,  I  do  but  utter  the  solemn  and  unexaggerated 
conviction  of  my  conscience,  when  I  declare,   that  however 


16  PRIVATE     REVENGE. 

much  evil  influence  on  the  community  he  may  exert,  who, 
under- whatever  circumstances  of  enormous  provocation,  strikes 
down  a  foe,  it  is  far  less  than  that  of  the  Christian  who  stands 
by  his  side  and  says,  "I  approve  of  the  deed;  I  would  have 
done  the  same."  The  one  murders  only  a  man  :  the  other 
murders  the  moral  sense  of  the  community.  The  one  removes 
a  single  life  :  the  other  taints  and  poisons  the  air  which  is 
the  breath  of  all  lives.  The  one  strikes  down  but  a  single 
culprit:  the  other  unnerves  the  arm  of  law,  whose  oflice  is 
to  strike  down  all  culprits.  The  one  destroys  a  human  offen- 
der: the  other  destroys  a  divine  principle.  In  short,  while  in 
the  one  case  it  is  only  the  guilty  that  is  punished,  in  the  other 
it  is  Justice  herself  that  is  gibbeted.  Oh,  let  the  Christian  leave 
the  approval  and  the  sanction  of  this  evil  spirit  of  revenge,  to 
those  who  know  nothing  of  the  grandeur  of  the  life  of  Jesus 
in  the  heart.  That  he  may  not  yield  a  cowardly  assent  to  the 
seemingly  brave  and  noble,- but  in  reality  base  and  ^elfish  senti- 
ments of  a  Godless  world,  in  reference  to  revenge,  let  his  heart 
be  fortified  in  advance  with  the  true  spirit  and  the  right  princi- 
ple and  feeling  with  which  to  meet  injuries  inflicted  upon  himself, 
and  with  which  to  judge  of  the  true  mode  in  which  they  should 
be  treated  in  the  case  of  others. 

Let  not  the  Christian  suppose  that  because  it  is  his  duty,  and 
the  prompting  of  a  truly  Christian  sentiment,  to  pity  him  who 
has  suffered  awful  wrong,  and  to  judge  charitably  of  his  deed 
of  revenge  in  view  of  terrible  and  maddening  provocation,  that 
it  is  therefore  equally  a  Christian  sentiment  and  duty,  to  desire 
that  he  should  escape  the  just  judgment  of  the  law.  How  can 
an  awful  sense  of  the  sin  and  shame  of  yielding  to  passion  and 
revenge  be  kept  up  in  a  community,  if  no  judgment  is  seen  to 
fall  upon  it  ?  A  true  Christian  sympathy  will  indeed  prompt 
the  follower  of  Christ  to  minister  the  balm  of  sympathy  to  him 
who,  stung  by  wrong,  has  rushed  into  revenge — especially 
if  he  has  been  hurried  into  the  deed  against  his  previous  con- 
victions, principles,  and  feelings.  But  even  in  the  moment  of 
his  profoundest  sympathy ;   when  he  feels  most  how  dreadful 


PRIVATE     REVENGE.  17 

was  the  provocation  ;  when  he  realizes  how  fearfully  he  would 
have  been  tempted  to  have  done  the  same ;  even  on  the  very 
edge  of  life  to  which  he  has  followed  his  sinning  brother,  hand 
in  hand  and  heart  to  heart ;  in  the  midst  of  the  human  weak- 
nesses which  start  back  appalled  from  the  contemplation  of  a 
shameful  death,  and  the  human  ties,  then  tightening  painfully 
about  the  heart  of  the  victim  of  his  own  passion,  which  draw 
him  back  to  life;  even  in  that  hour  when  his  affection  clings  to 
him,  and  his  pity  weeps  over  him,  and  his  sympathy  shudders  at 
his  doom  ;  even  then  he  will  silence  in  his  heart  the  sensibilities 
that  clamor  for  his  acquittal,  and  tenderly  resign  him  to  the 
hands  of  justice,  and  sob  forth,  from  his  heavy  heart,  assent  to 
that  punishment  which  is  no  less  the  expression  of  love  than  it 
is  of  law.  Is  it  asked,  "  how  with  such  pitifulness  of  heart  he 
can  sanction  or  desire  this  cruel  doom?  "  It  is  because  he  has 
so  large  a  love !  It  is  because  it  is  a  love  which,  while  it 
covers  the  poor  culprit  at  his  feet  with  the  robe  of  charity, 
and  speaks  to  him  in  tones  of  brotherly  compassion,  embraces 
also  the  whole  brotherhood  of  man,  which,  without  the  law  and 
the  penalty  which  consigns  his  guilty  brother  to  a  shameful 
doom,  would  be  given  up  to  a  human  hell  of  ungoverned  pas- 
sions ;  and  which,  taking  in  its  sweep  the  interest  and  glory  of 
the  Universe,  which  to  be  happy  must  be  holy  and  governed 
by  holy  law,  reaches  the  Almighty  and  perfect  God,  whose 
glorious  love  is  but  the  blending  of  a  mercy  which  is  infinite, 
with  a  justice  that  is  inflexible.  Such  is  Christian  love  and  pity. 
It  is  never  dissociated  from  justice.  Justice  never  is  so  lovely 
and  venerable  as  when  she  pronounces  a  sentence  in  pitying 
tones,  and  executes  a  penalty  with  a  heart,  which,  fainting  in 
its  task  from  sympathy,  is  yet  nerved,  by  duty,  to  its  calm  dis- 
charge. Even  Pagan  virtue,  which  could  discern  no  holy  God 
behind  human  law,  imparting  to  it  divine  significancy  and 
sanction,  could  yet  see  and  admire  in  Junius  Brutus,  giving  up 
his  own  son  to  the  Lictors  against  the  entreaties  of  friends  and 
the  yearnings  of  parental  love,  how  sublime  and  glorious  is 
law,  when — like  the  triumphal  car  of  a  Konian  victor  moving 


18  PRIVATE    REVENGE. 

to  the  Capitol  of  the  world,  surrounded  by  chained  and  weeping 
captives — it  takes  its  majestic  way  to  the  temple  of  Eternal 
Justice,  amid  the  subjugated  and  the  captive  sensibilities  and 
emotions  of  the  heart.  Surely  Christian  law  should  be  admin- 
istered with  no  less  mastery  over  human  weakness  than  Pagan 
law. 

And  let  no  Christian  man  think  that  it  is  mean,  or  unworthy  of 
his  manhood,  that  he  should  be  content  with  justice,  and  forego 
personal  revenge,  even  where  justice  cannot  be  obtained.  Let 
no  man  hold  up  the  Christian  principle  of  declining  personal 
revenge,  and  seeking  only  public  justice,  as  other  than  a  noble 
and  lofty  principle.  It  leaves  him  the  full  feeling  of  moral  in- 
dignation against  wrong.  It  gives  him  the  opportunity  to  utter 
his  solemn  protest  against  injustice.  It  opens  to  him  the  only 
retaliation  worthy  of  Him,  the  law  of  whose  life  is  love — that 
of  giving  the  offender  up  to  justice,  that  she  may  convict  him 
of  wrong,  and  lead  him,  through  shame,  into  penitence  and 
righteousness.  Why  should  revenge  be  thought  noble,  and 
this  lofty  spirit  of  unselfish  loyalty  to  the  law  of  love,  be 
thought  mean  ?  Why  is  revenge  counted  noble  ?  It  is  easy 
to  yield  to  it.  It  is  purely  selfish.  It  does  no  good  to  the 
perpetrator  or  the  victim.  It  is  the  expression  of  pride.  It 
it  the  act  of  hate.  It  inflames  the  evil  of  him  who  suffers.  It 
leaves  remorse  to  the  perpetrator.  Revenge,  noble  ?  It  is 
utterly  hateful,  selfish,  deadly,  devilish  !  What  is  there  to  be 
admired  in  that  which  is  wholly  evil  in  its  origin,  and  wholly 
disastrous  in  its  results  ?  But  the  Christian  spirit — how  noble, 
how  unselfish,  how  truly  manly !  It  achieves  the  ends  of  jus- 
tice and  benevolence,  while  it  foregoes  all  those  of  personal 
and  selfish  gratification  and  revenge.  It  masters  anger  by 
love.  "  Greater  is  he  that  ruleth  his  own  spirit  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city,"  or  killeth  a  citizen.  It  does  reverence  to  the 
awful  attribute  of  justice,  while  at  the  same  time  it  pays  homage 
to  the  higher  law  of  love.  It  is  being  angry,  and  sinning  not. 
It  is  being  merciful,  and  yet  not  tolerating  iniquity.  Mercy 
and  truth  meet  together ;  righteousness  and  peace  kiss  each 
other  in  his  soul ;  and  holiness  is  their  one  name. 


PRIVATE     REVENGE.  IB 

Let  the  Christian  also  have  a  very  strong  conviction  of  the 
fevil  of  personal  revenge  ;  of  its  hatefulness  in  itself  and  in  the 
«ye  of  God ;  and  of  the  sin  of  ever  yielding  to  its  base  sug- 
gestions. He  must  not,  for  a  moment,  be  led  by  the  world's 
code  of  honor  to  believe  that  there  is  any  class  of  wrongs  which 
free  him  from  his  Christian  duty  to  meet  all  wrong  with  that 
lofty  magnanimity,  which  as  earnestly  demands  justice  as  it 
eschews  revenge.  He  must  not  admit  that  because  a  wrono- 
touches  him  in  the  tenderest  point,  and  is  incapable  of  being 
avenged  by  human  justice,  that  he  may  be  its  avenger.  If  it 
is  Christian,  magnanimous,  and  manly,  to  forego  private  re- 
venge for  wrong,  then  the  more  aggavated,  the  more  mad- 
dening to  human  pride,  and  passion,  and  affection,  the  wrong 
committed  is,  the  more  Christian,  magnanimous,  and  manly  it 
is  to  conquer  self,  and  submit  to  God,  and  leave  retribution  to 
Him  in  whose  hands  alone  it  is  all  unmixed  with  vengeance. 
Without  being  guarded  and  strengthened  by  this  previous  set- 
tled conviction,  he  will  be  caught  up  and  hurried  by  sudden 
passion  into  evil  and  revenge.  If  his  moral  sense  is  cheated 
into  a  theoretical  approval  of  the  lawfulness  or  excusableness 
of  revenge  under  any  circumstances  ;  if  he  has  not  the  barrier 
of  a  fixed  principle  and  conviction  against  it  always  erected  in 
his  inmost  conscience  ;  if  he  fail  to  erect  that  barrier  through 
any  doubt,  or  any  equilibrium  between  his  judgments  and  his 
feelings — he  may  be  sure  that  the  sudden  onrush  of  passion, 
under  aAvful  wrong,  will  hurry  him  into  deeds  of  selfish,  personal, 
and  self-tormenting  vengeance. 

Nay,  let  the  Christian  not  only  have  a  very  strong  conviction 
of  the  evil  of  personal  revenge ;  but  one  no  less  strong  that, 
good  Christian  as  he  may  be,  there  is  yet  that  in  him  which, 
under  certain  aggravated  wrongs,  would  be  stung  into  ungov- 
ernable madness,  but  for  this  previous,  settled,  and  most  sol- 
emnly vowed  purpose,  never  to  yield  to  revenge  ;  and  that  even 
then,  there  is  that  in  him  which,  call  on  God  as  he  may,  trust 
in  God  as  he  may,  nay,  receive  aid  from  God  as  he  will,  will 
yet  be  roused  into  an  almost  frenzy  of  indignation,  of  struggle, 


Y\   12894 


20  PRIVATE     REVENGE. 

and  of  agony,  which  it  will  be  a  mighty  triumph  of  grace  to 
keep  from  passing  into  revenge.  Oh,  Brethren,  there  is  enough 
of  evil  humanity  in  us  all  to  be  roused  into  a  Devil's  vindictive-. 
ness,  under  enormous  wrongs,  but  for  the  mighty  grace  of 
Jesus.  Let  us  know  it !  Let  us  pray  to  be  delivered  from 
aggravated  temptation.  Let  us,  through  prayer,  and  watchful- 
ness, and  self-knowledge,  and  conscious  weakness,  and  full 
reliance  on  promised  strength,  be  ready  for  it,  should  it  come. 
In  the  sufferance  of  some  wrongs — such  as  a  good  name  filched 
from  us — a  heart  twined  into  our  own,  torn  from  us- — a  wife 
violated  or  seduced — a  daughter  fascinated  from  the  peaceful 
home  of  her  youth,  and  trampled  upon  in  the  domestic  hell  into 
which  she  has  been  lured:  In  the  first  anguish  of  wrongs  like 
these,  tell  no  human  heart — not  even  the  highest  Christian 
heart — to  be  at  peace  !  Tell  it  to  be  submissive,  to  cling  to  the 
skirts  of  God's  mercy;  but  mock  not  its  tumultuous  anguish  by 
telling  it  to  be  at  peace  !  It  must  feel  the  storm  while  it  submits 
to  its  pitiless  pelting.  It  must  lie  to — it  must  let  itself  be  driven 
with  bare  poles  before  the  shrieking  blast — it  must  be  swerved 
with  a  stiff  helm  off  from  the  beckoning  shore,  haunted  by  the 
foul  and  fiendish  wreckers  of  immortal  souls,  which  seems  to 
furnish  a  harbor  of  safety  and  of  rest  in  revenge,  but  which 
lures  only  to  destroy  ;  and  then  it  must  be  allowed  to  toss,  and 
plunge,  and  struggle  onward,  amid  the  seething  waves,  until 
God  shall  graciously  say  to  the  tempest,  "  Peace,  be  still  !"     , 


